This report concerns the results of a survey on children’s literature and the promotion of reading in Syria. Emphasis is placed on a number of axes regarding children’s literature;; including policies and legislation;; programs and institutions;; libraries;; elementary schools and universities;; and general information regarding children’s books. Upon analysis of the state of children’s literature in Syria;; this report identifies certain trends regarding children's literature. It also identifies a number of problems facing the promotion of reading among children and makes a number of recommendations for the development and improvement of children’s literature.

With an executive summary on the Syrian refugees situation in Jordan;; the report combines the conclusions of detailed assessments in various areas including as child protection and gender-based violence;; education;; water sanitation and hygiene;; and nutrition and health. It provides a holistic picture of the situation faced by Syrian children and women in Jordan to draw out recommendations for necessary plans of action. Some key findings of the report include growing challenges for water;; sanitation and hygiene situation in Za’atari camp;; several threats to the nutritional status and health of Syrian girls;; boys and women and increasing violence against adolescents. Bringing together the voices of children and women at the camps;; the report examines the situations of Syrian refugees in host communities and refugee camps and finds key recommendations based on them.

This publication aims to summarize and assess the results of the United States Energy Association (USEA)’s Jordan Energy Partnership Project (JUPP);; funded by the USAID. The JUPP is part of the USEA/USAID Energy Utility Partnership Program (EUPP);; which assists developing countries with increasing environmentally sustainable energy production and use and improving the operational efficiency and increased financial viability of their utilities and related institutions. The JUPP focuses on improving the technical and operational efficiency of Jordan’s electric utilities and electric grid. Defining energy insecurity as one of the most significant problems in Jordan;; the report summarizes the program’s activities and assesses their results and impacts. It looks at multiple aspects including the utility participant training and female participation. The results of the publication are increasing system efficiency;; developing customer energy efficiency programs;; increasing corporate efficiency;; supporting capacity building;; reducing electricity losses and power outages;; improving transmission dispatch center operations;; enhancing worker productivity through safety and interconnecting renewable energy and distributed generation. The report concludes with key lessons learned from the projects.

The report presents the findings of the government institutions efforts survey;; which is designed for the purpose of reviewing the government agencies’ current and past communication activities in water;; energy and environment. The specific objective of this survey is to review the Donor Position Paper on Outreach targeted sample of 36 staff from 22 government institutions from Aqaba and Karak. As part of the Public Action for Water;; Energy and Environment Project (PAP);; a public education and behavior change communication program developed to support USAID’s technical and policy investments in the Jordanian water and energy sectors;; this report finds that many government institutions have more than one role;; overseeing solid waste management;; industrial water and reuse and environmental laws. The report also finds that the communications programs are scattered and credibility and trust between service agencies and their clients is a concern. The interview analysis suggests that the Public Action Project needs to focus on two or three specific areas;; and the report recommends all capacity building activities to be focused on one goal of developing;; implementing and measuring national communication strategies and action plans.

The study aims to evaluate the concepts of water;; energy and solid waste that exists in the curriculum and the manner in which they are tackled by mapping the current textbooks based the three themes of the study – water;; energy and solid waste. The report is based on a comprehensive study of 104 school textbooks from grades 1 – 10 in fourteen subjects. The survey finds that the environmental education concepts were vastly covered in all subjects of he study in a total of 1777 concepts;; and most of them focused on scientific facts and information with repetitive energy concepts and lack of sequential flow. This research was conducted as part of the Public Action for Water;; Energy and Environment Project (PAP);; which aims to encourage water and energy conservation and to support behavior change towards more conservation and efficient practices both at the household level and in the commercial;; industrial and civil society arenas using social marketing behavioral methods. Based on the finding that there is little space allocated to the synthesis and application of information and knowledge and therefore the concepts remain superficially tackled;; the report recommends that support material should be prepared for the different grade levels and training programs should be developed for the teachers as real agent of change and role models.

The USAID Jordan Tourism Development Project is the largest dedicated tourism development project implemented by the United States Agency for International Development. The final report for the project phase of 2008-2013 shares success stories of developing Jordan's tourism sector and increasing the number of visitors to the country according to the updated national strategy for the current period with new targets and implementation of actions. The report highlights the projects' achievements in supporting archaeological conservation of key sites such as Petra;; Madaba and Amman Citadel and improving the visitor experience in Jordan through an extenstive nationwide training program. The final report also includes the stories of those who benefitted from USAID's investment in tourism and the USAID tourism project's comprehensive sustainable tourism industry development approach.

The report aims to learn about young people's knowledge;; attitudes;; and behaviors with regards to water conservation;; energy conservation;; and waste management;; and it assess these against the learning objectives of the curriculum. It discovers that students' knowledge was sufficient and at times more sophisticated than that founded in the curriculum even though their attitudes and behaviors remain largely unchanged. The object of the survey pertains to the objectives of the Public Action for Water;; Energy;; and Environment Project;; which revolve around education for young people;; teachers and youth leaders to develop their knowledge and ethical values and attitudes. The survey focuses on assessing young people and educator's current awareness of water and energy resources and waste reduction and evaluating formal curriculum resources. The report points at the gap of translating young people's knowledge into genuine interest;; concern and action and proposes set of targeted actions including development of relevant resources and additional supplemental materials;; age-relevant projects to support environmental concepts in the national curriculum and assignment of environmental coordinator at all schools.

The report is based on the findings of the survey that was designed to review NGO/CBO experience in communication/outreach and assess the capability of individual staff in the relevant NGOS and CBOs. The primary goal of the project is to institutionalize social marketing practices in NGOs and CBOs;; because organizations in the forefront of development depend on their ability to reach target groups and remove barriers to change. The research was conducted as part of the Public Action in Water;; Energy;; and Environmental Project to initiate and establish clear and identifiable behavioral changes amongst the Jordanian public and decision-makers;; to lead to increased efficiency in the use of water and energy;; and to improve solid waste handling practices. The main findings of the research identify sources of funds and grants of the NGOs;; their major activities and partnerships. The report also suggests training for successful fundraising;; social marketing and media campaigns for the NGOs and continued surveys and interviews of the NGOs.